This Is Marketing: You Cant Be Seen Until You Learn to See

Early adopters are not adapters: They crave the new
Early adopters are at the start of the marketer’s journey. But it’s important
not to think of them as adapters. Adapters figure out how to get along when
the world changes. They’re not happy about it, but they figure it out.
The early adopters are different. They are neophiliacs—addicted to the
new. They get a thrill from discovery, they enjoy the tension of “This might
not work,” and they get pleasure from bragging about their discoveries. The
neophiliacs are very forgiving of missteps from those who seek to innovate
with them, and incredibly unforgiving after the initial thrill of discovery
wears off.
That relentless desire for better is precisely why they’re always looking
for something new. You can’t be perfect in the eyes of an early adopter; the
best you can do is be interesting.
In your work as a marketer, you’ll be torn between two poles.
Sometimes, you’ll be busy creating interesting new work for people who
are easily bored. And sometimes, you’ll be trying to build products and
services that last, that can extend beyond the tiny group of neophiliacs and
reach and delight the rest of the market.
There’s almost nothing a marketer can do that shouldn’t be prefaced with
that distinction. The magic question is: Who’s it for?
The people you seek to serve—what do they believe? What do they
want?
An aside about the reptile people who are secretly running
things

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Professor Roland Imhoff of the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz,
Germany, wanted to understand what makes some people choose their
beliefs.
In particular, he’s been studying a particular kind of outlier: the
conspiracy theorist. Since we know that conspiracy theories aren’t factual,
why are they so appealing to some people? And which people?
In one study he cited, it was found that many people who believe that
Lady Diana is still alive, having faked her own death, also believe that she
was murdered. And in a similar study, people who believe that Osama bin
Laden was dead before the Navy Seals arrived at his compound are also
likely to report that he’s still alive.
The facts aren’t at issue here; they can’t be. What’s happening is that
these theorists are taking comfort in their standing as outliers and they’re
searching for a feeling, not a logical truth. Imhoff writes, “Adherence to
conspiracy theory might not always be the result of some perceived lack of
control, but rather a deep-seated need for uniqueness.”
In Imhoff’s study, he presented American conspiracy theorists with
made-up “facts” about a conspiracy regarding smoke detectors in Germany.
When he told this group that 81 percent of the German population believed
the theory of the conspiracy, they weren’t nearly as interested or
enthusiastic as when they heard that only 19 percent of the population
supported the theory.
By rooting for the overlooked underdog, the conspiracy theorist engages
with his desired emotion, that of feeling unique, a brave truth-teller, the
outsider.
This group doesn’t see themselves as kooks. Each member doesn’t have
a unique theory, all alone in a field. Instead, they seek to be part of a small
group, a minority group, an outspoken group that can take solace in each
other while the outside world ignores them. They can find this feeling every
time they hang out with the other reptile-spotters.
That’s not that big a leap from the countless micro-tribes that so many
early adopters belong to.
Sooner or later, each of us becomes (for a while) the kind of person who
believes in the reptile people that control the earth. We’re seeking our own
little pocket of uniqueness.

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